{"id":832,"date":"2017-04-12T14:29:45","date_gmt":"2017-04-12T14:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sophiehannah.wpengine.com\/?p=832"},"modified":"2024-04-18T15:53:55","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T15:53:55","slug":"no-one-should-condescend-to-agatha-christie-shes-a-genius","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sophiehannah.com\/no-one-should-condescend-to-agatha-christie-shes-a-genius\/","title":{"rendered":"No one should condescend to Agatha Christie \u2013 she’s a genius"},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” custom_padding=”0px|||” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_css_main_element=”background: #85ddd4; \/* For browsers that do not support gradients *\/|| background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#85ddd4, #ffe6bf); \/* For Safari 5.1 to 6.0 *\/|| background: -o-linear-gradient(#85ddd4, #ffe6bf); \/* For Opera 11.1 to 12.0 *\/|| background: -moz-linear-gradient(#85ddd4, #ffe6bf); \/* For Firefox 3.6 to 15 *\/|| background: linear-gradient(#85ddd4, #ffe6bf); \/* Standard syntax *\/|| “][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”on” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” gutter_width=”2″ custom_css_main_2=”margin-top: 60px;” custom_padding=”||0px|” custom_margin=”||0px|” background_color_2=”rgba(255,255,255,0.5)” padding_top_2=”30px” padding_right_2=”3%” padding_bottom_2=”3%” padding_left_2=”3%” padding_2_last_edited=”on|tablet” padding_2_tablet=”0px|0px|0px|0px”][et_pb_column type=”3_4″][et_pb_post_title admin_label=”Post Title” title=”on” meta=”off” author=”on” date=”on” categories=”on” comments=”on” featured_image=”on” featured_placement=”below” parallax_effect=”off” parallax_method=”on” text_orientation=”left” text_color=”dark” text_background=”off” text_bg_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.9)” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” title_font=”|||on|” title_font_size=”50px” custom_margin_tablet=”||0px|” custom_margin_last_edited=”on|phone” title_font_size_tablet=”42px” title_font_size_phone=”36px” title_font_size_last_edited=”on|phone” custom_margin=”||20px|” \/][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_4″][et_pb_sidebar admin_label=”Sidebar” orientation=”left” area=”sidebar-1″ background_layout=”light” remove_border=”on” header_font=”|on||on|” header_font_size=”32″ header_line_height=”2.5em” body_font_size=”24″ body_line_height=”1em” body_text_color=”#000000″ body_font=”|on|||” disabled=”off” disabled_on=”on|on|” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”on” custom_padding=”0px|||” custom_margin=”0px|||” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” background_color_1=”rgba(255,255,255,0.5)” padding_top_1=”40px” padding_right_1=”7%” padding_bottom_1=”7%” padding_left_1=”7%” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” gutter_width=”2″ padding_1_last_edited=”on|tablet” background_color_2=”rgba(255,255,255,0.5)” padding_2_tablet=”20px|7%|3%|7%” padding_2_last_edited=”on|tablet” padding_1_tablet=”5%|7%|7%|7%”][et_pb_column type=”3_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]\r\n\r\nChristie is consistently dismissed as merely a brilliant plotter of mysteries. But she\u2019s so much more than that.<\/strong>\r\n\r\n\u201cA<\/span><\/span>greeing to marry you made me feel so powerful \u2026 The other suitors thought me simply wonderful, and, of\u00a0course, it would have been very nice for them to have me. But I\u2019m everything you most dislike and disapprove of, and yet you couldn\u2019t withstand me! My vanity couldn\u2019t hold out against that. It\u2019s so much nicer to be a secret and delightful sin to anybody than to be a feather in his cap. I make you frightfully uncomfortable and stir you up the wrong way the whole time, and yet you adore me madly.\u201d\r\n\r\nThat\u2019s the vicar\u2019s wife speaking, at\u00a0the beginning of The Murder at the Vicarage<\/em><\/a> by Agatha Christie<\/a>, a writer too often dismissed as merely a brilliant plotter of mysteries. As I hope the above quote proves, it is a charge that\u2019s grossly unfair. Christie\u2019s books are so much more than great puzzles. Each of\u00a0her novels demonstrates a profound understanding of people \u2013 how they think, feel and behave \u2013 all delivered in\u00a0her crisp, elegant, addictively readable style. While immersed in a Christie mystery, you might not notice the wisdom sprinkled throughout the pages because you\u2019re having too much fun, growling with frustration because you\u2019d love to be able to guess the solution but\u00a0can\u2019t.\r\n
<\/div>\r\nSo why are so many determined to underrate Christie? Raymond Chandler <\/a>sneered that a Hercule Poirot mystery was \u201cguaranteed to knock the keenest mind for a loop. Only a half-wit could guess it.\u201d He dismissed the British golden age detective novel as \u201cfutzing around with timetables and bits of charred paper and who trampled the jolly old flowering arbutus under the library window\u201d. Chandler described the crime cases in his own novels as \u201ca\u00a0perfunctory mystery element dropped in like the olive in a martini\u201d. Surely anyone who doesn\u2019t care about puzzles or mysteries should write in a\u00a0different genre: letters of apology to\u00a0greater writers than oneself that one\u00a0has unfairly maligned, perhaps.\r\n\r\nWhat Chandler failed to understand about Christie\u2019s artistic project was that all these seemingly trivial details \u2013 the charred paper, the timetables, the plant on the windowsill \u2013 are vital. Christie knew detail mattered; she knew that those who ignore the apparently minor have little or no chance of understanding greater truths. That\u2019s why solving the puzzle feels so urgent, and why plot always takes centre stage in a Christie novel \u2013 because how else are we truly to know who a person is until it has been revealed what he has done, and tried to hide, and why?\r\n\r\n